The Effect of Intravenous Infiltration Management Program for Hospitalized Children

• We develop a 4-month IV infiltrations management program for pediatric patients receiving peripheral IV infusion at a children's hospital.
• The IV infiltrations management program was effective to prevent the occurrence of IV infiltration.
• IV infiltration management program was helpful to detect occurrence of IV infiltration at earlier stage.

PurposeThis study aimed to identify the effect of IV infiltration management program among hospitalized children.Design and MethodsThis was a quasi-experimental study with history comparison group design with 2,894 catheters inserted during 3 months comparison phase and 3,651 catheters inserted during 4 months experimental phase. The intervention was composed of seven activities including applying poster, documentation of catheter insertion, parents education, making infiltration report, assessment of vein condition before inserting catheter, appropriate site selection, and documentation of catheter insertion, and assessment of peripheral catheter insertion site every shift. Data were analyzed using of X2-test, Fisher's exact test.ResultsThe infiltration incidence rate was 0.9% for experimental group and 4.4% for comparison group, which was significantly different (x2 = 80.42, p < .001). The catheter maintenance period (p = .035) and infiltration state (p = .039) were significantly different among participants with infiltration between comparison and experimental groups.ConclusionsIV Infiltration management program was founded to be effective in reducing the IV infiltration incidence rate and increasing early detection of IV infiltration.Practice ImplicationsConsidering the effect of IV Infiltration management program, we recommend that this infiltration management program would be widely used in the clinical settings.